Amar Singh's exile likely to continue? Shivpal Yadav says no plans to take Mulayam loyalist in new Samajwadi Front

Lucknow: Samajwadi Party leader Shivpal Yadav on Sunday said he has no plans to take Amar Singh in his proposed Samajawadi Secular Front and that he had also opposed his rejoining the party last year.

"I was not in favour of Amar Singh joining Samajwdi Party again. I knew he will not be getting due respect and one should avoid...You can ask anyone I was not in his favour", Yadav told PTI.

Amar was termed as an "outsider" by Samajwdi Party president Akhilesh Yadav during the state assembly polls. The Samajwadi Party had in May 2016 declared Amar Singh as its candidate for the Rajya Sabha elections taking him back to the party, six years after his expulsion. Amar was expelled from the Samajwdi Party along with then Rampur MP Jaya Prada in February 2010 on charges of anti-party activities, after which he established his own party — Lok Manch.

File image of Shivpal Singh Yadav. PTI

In 2014, however, Amar Singh and Mulayam were again seen together at a function in Lucknow, after which they kept meeting frequently.

Amar was expelled on 1 January this year at the Samajwdi Party national convention when Akhilesh became Samajwadi Party president. Asked whether he would consider taking Amar in his front Shivpal said, "There is no plan as such to take him. We will take along all the 'samajwadis' (socialists), who are feeling neglected".

Shivpal said, "He is open to do anything for unity within the family. If they (Akhilesh and others) want they can sit with 'netaji' (Mulayam). I want to ensure that netaji gets due respect. And for this I am ready for any placement".

Holding "sycophancy and backbiting" responsible for the dispute within the family, Shivpal said, "all will be well if the family is united. There is no reason for dispute within the family. Our first priority will be to unite the family".

On his decision to form the 'Samajwadi Secular Front', which will be headed by Mulayam, Samajwadi Party legislator Shivpal said that it will bring the party on the "right track".

Maintaining that he is still in the party and will only try to strengthen it, Shivpal, who has been at odds with nephew and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, however had made it clear that he was forming just a "front" and not a political party.

"We will constitute the Samajwadi Secular Front in July to bring the SP on the right track. We will formally announce it at a meeting in Lucknow", Shivpal said.

"Samajwadi Party patron Mulayam will be the national president of the front and I would be its convenor," he said. On possibility of the Front jumping in the political arena in the future in case family dispute did not settle down, Shivpal said, "There are no elections right now. The next poll is in 2019 (Lok Sabha polls) and then in 2022 (UP assembly polls). We will decide in later stage what situation arises".

The Samajwadi Party has witnessed a prolonged factional fight that began before the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections with Akhilesh and Shivpal camps on the opposite sides.